国际英语新闻：S Korea's foreign reserves rise to 298.6 bln USD in March

SEOUL, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign reserves rose to 298.6 billion U.S. dollars in March mainly due to increased conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets, the country's central bank said on Monday.

As of the end of March, the country's foreign reserves stood at 298.62 billion U.S. dollars, up 950 million dollars from 297.67 billion dollars the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a monthly report.

The March reading marked the record high of reserves and the fourth consecutive month of growth.

The increase was attributable to rising investment profits and growing conversion value of non-dollar denominated assets caused by weaker dollar, according to the BOK.

The nation's foreign reserves consisted of 271.71 billion dollars of securities, 21.93 billion dollars of deposits, 3.7 billion dollars of special drawing rights (SDR), 1.19 dollars of International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserve positions and 0.08 billion dollars of gold bullion.

As of the end of February, South Korea was the world's seventh- largest holder of foreign reserves following China, Japan, Russia, China's Taiwan, Brazil and India, the BOK added.